Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black British man, was shot dead by police in Tottenham, North London on 4 August 2011. The Metropolitan Police stated that officers were attempting to arrest Duggan on suspicion of planning an attack and that he was in possession of a handgun. Duggan died from a gunshot wound to the chest. The circumstances of Duggan's death resulted in public protests in Tottenham, which led to conflict with police and escalated into riots across London and other English cities.
Duggan was under investigation by Operation Trident, an anti-crime project conducted by the Metropolitan Police. He was aware of this and texted the message "Trident have jammed me" moments before the incident.
He was known to be in possession of a BBM Bruni Model 92 handgun, a blank-firing replica of a Beretta 92 pistol, converted to fire live rounds. This had been given to him by Kevin Hutchinson-Foster, 15 minutes before he was shot. At an initial trial of Hutchinson-Foster in September–October 2012 the jury failed to reach a verdict. At a re-trial on 31 January 2013 Hutchinson-Foster was convicted of supplying Duggan with the gun and jailed. In August 2013 the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said its investigation had substantially ended and that they had found no evidence of criminality by the police. A public inquest on the Duggan death began on 16 September 2013, and ended on 8 January 2014 with an 8–2 majority concluding that Duggan's death was a lawful killing.
Conflicting accounts of the events leading up to Duggan's death were provided by the Metropolitan Police, attracting criticism and suspicion from invested parties and other supporters. These critics accused police of misconduct and of failing to cooperate with those investigating Duggan's death.
Background
Mark Duggan
Mark Duggan was born on 15 September 1981 and grew up in Broadwater Farm, north London. His parents were of mixed Irish and African-Caribbean descent. Between the ages of 12 and 17, he lived with his maternal aunt Carole in Manchester. His maternal aunt Julie was married to Manchester gangland boss Desmond Noonan.
At the time of his death, Duggan and his long-term partner Semone Wilson had three children together aged 10 years, 7 years, and 18 months. He had a fourth child with another woman, and a third woman was pregnant with his baby at the time of his death. He was the father of six children in total, the youngest of whom was born after his death.
Duggan had worked at Stansted Airport, and had applied for a job as a firefighter, according to his cousin. Duggan's son, Kemani, is a member of the UK drill collective OFB going by the moniker Bandokay.
Criminal activity
According to Tony Thompson of the London Evening Standard, Duggan may have been a founding member of North London's "Star Gang", an offshoot of the Tottenham Mandem gang. Unnamed police sources alleged via The Daily Telegraph that Duggan was a "well known gangster" and a "major player and well known to the police in Tottenham".
Officers attached to Operation Trident had Duggan under surveillance; police stated that they suspected Duggan was planning to commit a crime in retaliation for the killing of his cousin, Kelvin Easton, who was stabbed to death outside a bar in East London in March 2011. Duggan was described as having been increasingly paranoid as a consequence of his cousin's death. The Daily Telegraph alleged that Duggan was bound to avenge his cousin's death by the "street code" of the gang.
After Duggan's death, he was described as a drug dealer by the police and others, an allegation denied by his family and friends. Duggan's family said the allegations against Duggan were "disinformation", and that he was "not a gang member and he had no criminal record". Duggan had been convicted of cannabis possession and handling stolen goods. His fiancée said he had spent time on remand.
Shooting
Officers of the Metropolitan Police Service stopped a minicab which was carrying Duggan as a passenger at about 18:15 BST on 4 August 2011. There was no CCTV coverage of the place where they stopped the cab.
According to an unnamed firearms officer at the trial of Kevin Hutchinson-Foster in September 2012, Duggan pivoted out of the cab and pulled a selfloading pistol or handgun from his waistband. According to the taxi driver, who was granted anonymity at the subsequent inquest, Duggan left the car and ran:
The taxi driver told the inquest that an armed officer had threatened to shoot him if he did not stop looking at where Duggan had fallen to the ground and was being handled "quite harsh[ly] and callous[ly]" by officers.